


How the Other Half Lives

by kisahawklin



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Reality, Community: sga_episodefic, Episode Related, Episode: s05e04 Daedalus Variations, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-19
Updated: 2008-08-19
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:36:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene from 5.04 The Daedalus Variations: How things might have gone, on alt!John’s Atlantis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How the Other Half Lives

"Colonel?" Chuck says. "We’ve got a new contact. Looks like a ship."

"How far out?" John asks, and Chuck’s expression turns guilty.

"It’s in orbit, sir."

"What?" Sheppard asks, moving closer to the monitor. "How come we didn’t detect it?"

"I don’t know," Chuck says, his hands moving around the console. "We didn’t even detect a hyperspace window – it just appeared out of nowhere."

"I’m getting an I.F.F," Zelenka adds, and John waits for the other shoe to drop. "It’s the Daedalus."

"What?" John asks, followed immediately by: " _Rodney_?"

"I doubt it, Colonel," Zelenka says, and before John can ask him to open a channel, Radek’s scanning the ship and exclaiming, "There are four life signs!"

 _Four?_ John asks. That’s not even enough to fly her properly, much less travel any kind of distance.

"Colonel!" Chuck yells, and John whips his head around to look at him. "We’ve got another ship. No hyperspace window, in stable orbit. This one isn’t broadcasting."

"Shields up," John says harshly, "and open a channel to the Daedalus."

Radek puts the shields up – and that’s a strain on the ZPM they really didn’t need right now – and is about to open a channel when John hears his own voice come over the radio. _"Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in."_

All eyes in the gateroom turn to John, and he waves Zelenka off the communicator. Radek probably wouldn’t have done anything stupid – he’s remarkably _unlike_ Rodney in that way – but it’s better to be sure.

 _"Atlantis, do you read?"_ That’s definitely his own voice, with a semi-desperate edge to it. He glances over at Radek, who shrugs at him.

_"Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in."_

"Shut him down," John says. "Get his voice out of my city."

"Colonel," Zelenka says, typing away madly on one of the laptops, stopping to press a crystal now and again. "The alien ship is powering up weapons."

"Aimed where?" John asks, and he’s only moderately surprised when Chuck answers, "Atlantis, sir."

"Damn," John says softly. "How long can we hold them off?"

"It depends," Radek tells him, and John could throttle him and his inability to say something - anything - definite.

"Guess."

"I do not know," Radek says, and looks at the monitor again. "Incoming."

The first cluster of shots weakens their already limp ZPM, and Radek tells him with certainty that they can’t take another volley like that.

Just as John opens his mouth to give an order, evacuation or self-destruct or both, Chuck informs him that the Daedalus has taken out the other ship’s weapons systems. He hitches in a deep breath instead, and sets his mouth in a grim line.

"The alien ship has released fighters on the Daedalus," Chuck reports.

"It does not seem to be in good shape," Radek adds. "The shields are only at twenty per cent."

John glances around the control room and locks eyes with Lorne. "F302s, everyone we can spare." Evan runs off, hand on his communicator. John turns back at Zelenka, who is looking at him with remarkably expressive eyes. "You’re in command here, doc. Take care of Atlantis."

"Colonel, you should not…" John doesn't hear the rest of the warning, he’s off and running to transporter that’ll take him to the south pier, where they keep the F302s because they don't fit in the jumper bay. He climbs into his favorite, passing a hand over her hull as he goes, and gets ready for take off.

 _"Colonel,"_ Zelenka’s voice comes over his radio, _"the Daedalus has disappeared."_

"What do you mean, disappeared?" John asks irritably. "It went into hyperspace?"

_"No, Colonel. I believe you should come back and we can discuss it."_

"Stand down," John orders, and glances around at faces that look as disappointed as he feels. They haven’t had a real dogfight in a long time, and pilots who can’t fly get itchy. Atlantis can’t afford to let them take the F302s out, and the three puddlejumpers they have left are too valuable to let anyone joyride. John doesn’t even let himself do that.

On the trip back to the gateroom, John remembers his own voice speaking over city-wide and gives up some measure of hope that it’s Rodney and the Daedalus back from the dead. He declared Caldwell, Rodney, Ronon, Carter and a hundred thirty-eight other souls KIA almost a year ago, after eight months of searching every bit of space dust around the Replicator homeworld for a trace of the Daedalus. Even though he signed the paperwork, his brain stubbornly refuses to believe it until he has actual proof. He can’t convince himself Rodney didn’t pull off one of his last minute saves.

"Radek," John says as he stalks into the gateroom. "What’s going on?"

Radek ushers him into his office, where Teyla is already waiting. Radek pulls up some readings on his tablet, and they strike a chord in John’s memory, but he can’t quite place them.

"The readings from the Daedalus’ disappearance are similar to those we recorded when Meredith came to Atlantis," Radek explains, and he looks torn between excited and disturbed. "I think the Daedalus is moving through alternate realities."

John furrows his brow. "Why? What could cause that?"

"We do not know," Radek says, and John misses Rodney so much it _hurts_ – his comforting snark, his overconfidence. John sighs, and Radek smiles at him sadly. "It could be anything. Without seeing the Daedalus up close, there is simply no way to know. Sorry, Colonel."

"Perhaps it is Rodney’s doing after all," Teyla says, and John keeps his face carefully expressionless, but he could kiss Teyla for saying it out loud.

"It is possible, but it’s unlikely it is our Rodney. Or even Meredith. If it is randomly moving through alternate realities…" Radek pushes his glasses up and runs a hand through his hair, making it stand up even further. "If there is a Rodney on board, he or she is probably not ours."

Teyla’s face pinches up slightly, but she nods her head in understanding. "Wishful thinking," she says, and John suddenly wonders at how much slang she’s picked up in the last couple of years. She sounds less and less Athosian – like she’s losing her accent, but not quite.

"What about the ship still in orbit?" Lorne asks, and thank god he has his head on straight. John wasn’t that great a military commander for Atlantis, he’s sorrier still at managing the whole show. He’d be downright abysmal if it weren’t for Evan and Radek.

"Its weapons are disabled," Radek says, and John can hear Teyla’s sigh of relief. "But its engines are not, and it hasn’t left orbit yet. It is difficult to say why they are still here."

"My guess is they got a couple of readings of their own on the Daedalus," Evan says, and John cracks a bone-weary smile.

"As long as they aren’t shooting at us, I don’t care," John says, but can’t quite help a muttered complaint. "What I wouldn’t do for a couple of drones about now."

Radek looks down guiltily, and John hadn’t meant to imply that he should work harder on producing drones; he’s got his hands full just keeping the city working. "Don’t worry about it, doc," John says soothingly. "Wishful thinking."

He dismisses the meeting and sits at his desk for a while. He tries to play solitaire, but he’s too distracted and he hates Klondike anyway. He knows he could find Spider or Freecell on the servers, or hell, he could probably work out how to program it himself, but this is Elizabeth’s tablet, and Sam’s, and somehow it feels like sacrilege to change it.

He gets up and crosses the gateroom to stand out on the balcony. They haven’t lowered the shields, and John wonders how certain they are that the solitary ship doesn’t have weapons. He stares up at the sky and weighs his options. Zelenka would have asked him to power down the shields already if he had been completely confident they couldn’t attack. He rests his head on his folded arms and thinks, _what would Rodney do?_

"Colonel," Radek’s voice comes to him. "We are getting readings of energy spikes on the alien ship."

John shakes off his melancholy and jogs into the control room. "Are they firing on us again?"

"No," Zelenka answers. "The readings are similar to the Daedalus before it disappeared. Perhaps these aliens travel through alternate realities as well?"

"So they’re chasing the Daedalus?" John asks. Suddenly the distant dislike of these aliens turns into a brightly burning _rage_. He doesn’t even know if the Sheppard on that Daedalus _has_ a Rodney, or a Ronon, or a Ford, but he hates these guys for even _thinking_ of taking someone away from him. From Sheppard. That _other_ Sheppard.

"I would guess so, yes," Radek answers, and John’s grimly pleased to hear the anger in Dr. Z’s voice as well.

"All right, doc, what can we do? We have to keep them from following."

"Colonel," Radek says, and John knows the reprimand is coming. He’s the leader of Atlantis now, he needs to leave the daredevilry to his underlings. He can’t, though – the sky, space, _flying_ is the only thing left that he loves, he’s not giving it up for anything.

"Just tell me what to hit," he says, already nodding significantly to Lorne to get the zoomies moving.

"Their drive," Zelenka says. "I'll upload the location to the F302s."

"Thanks, Radek," John says, and runs for the south pier. He slides into Meredith, sending a quick thought to her namesake before pulling on his helmet. He never admits to anyone but himself what he’s named his fighter, besides, it’s only a thought, a prayer, before he straps himself in and takes off.

Radek lowers the shield long enough for the F302s to get clear and John glances down to be sure it’s come back online. The translucent glow reassures him, and he sets his sights on the alien ship.

 _"The Daedalus is back, sir,"_ Chuck reports over his mike, just as he sees it on his screen. _"The other ship is releasing fighters again."_

"Shit," John says in response, and mentally switches gears from Death Star attack run to close-quarters dogfighting. Adrenaline kicks in and his focus narrows in on the ship in front of him at the same time his peripheral vision expands.

 _"The Daedalus is moving,"_ Chuck tells him over the radio. _"They’ve got sublights online."_

"Thanks," John says, and switches channels. "Daedalus, this is Lt. Col. John Sheppard. Do you read?" There’s no answer, and John figures that’s only fair. He didn’t answer them, either. "Daedalus, do you read?"

 _"Yeah, Daedalus… this is Daedalus, come in,"_ the familiar voice says.

John can’t help asking, even though he’s pretty sure this is another him. He’s met too many versions of himself for his own comfort. "Who is this?"

 _"It’s a long story,"_ his own voice drawls back at him. He’s surprised how similar all his doubles seem to be. Meredith wasn’t anything like Rodney. Maybe like Jeannie, a little.

"Well, whoever you are," – he tries to keep the sarcasm out of his voice – "you saved our asses when you took out their main weapons. I figured the least we could do is return the favor."

_"Much appreciated."_

The chatter stops while John takes out two alien fighters and misses a third that heads straight for the Daedalus’ bridge. The rail guns take out enough of it at the last second to keep it from doing any damage, and John sighs in relief. He wonders if he’s manning the rail guns, or maybe Evan’s there. _Or Ford_ , he thinks miserably.

"Sorry about that. One of ‘em got through." John waits, and decides perhaps this Sheppard could use a little reassurance too. "Nice shooting, though."

_"Oh, thanks."_

John takes a look at his screen, and the sight of F302s chasing down the last two alien fighters. Eight or ten turned tail for the main ship, and he’s tempted to order his people after them, but if this is the same Daedalus, he has to hope that someone on that ship - _Rodney_ , his brain whispers - has found a way to keep them from jumping randomly. Maybe they’re going home.

"All right, that looks like that’s the last of ‘em, so, uh, what happens now?"

 _"Well, we go our own ways."_ His alter-ego sounds a little hesitant, like maybe he hasn’t met four or five versions of himself, and he's a bit curious.

"Just like that," John says, and keeps how much he wants to know who the other three lifesigns are behind his teeth.

_"Pretty much."_

"Well, the thing is," John says, taking a stab in the dark, "we do have a few questions. See, the Daedalus we know was destroyed two years ago in a battle with the replicators." John's had practice delivering bad news with a steady tone. Mostly it falls flat, but at least his voice doesn't waver.

_"Sorry to hear that, but this isn’t exactly our Daedalus, we’re just borrowing it for a while."_

"Oh… kay," John says, and thinks, _I’ve really got to learn to be more forthright._ "I have no idea what that means."

_"Well, like I said, it’s a long story."_

"All right, Daedalus," John says, giving it up as a lost cause. He wishes he could say something to see if their McKay was on board. Anything, to hear Rodney’s voice again. "Good luck."

John wonders if there’s any universe where he isn’t a total fuck-up. Listening to his own voice congratulate him on the things he least deserves, he thinks, _probably not._


End file.
